VIENNA, Va., Oct. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Kinergy Health, a pioneer in using the web to connect family members, doctors, and other health care providers to better and more efficiently deliver care for an aging or chronically ill loved one, today announced it was selected as winner of The Advisory Board Company's Patient Engagement Blue Button (R) Challenge. David Chao, Chief Technology Officer for Crimson at The Advisory Board Company, made the announcement at the Health 2.0 6th Annual Fall Conference in San Francisco on Monday, October 8th.

Blue Button is a Web-based feature through which patients may easily and securely download their health information from doctors, insurers, pharmacies and other health-related services and share it with health care providers, caregivers, and others they trust. The Blue Button appears on the patient portals of more than one-third of U.S. hospitals. Patients using the MyKinergy service are able to download Blue Button information and share it with their providers and caregivers along with medical history, care plans, medication lists, and other information in their secure MyKinergy account.

Each of the five finalists was paired with an Advisory Board member for a trial of their solution. Kinergy Health was paired with Lynchburg Internal Medicine, a member of the Centra Medical Group. All finalists were judged on three criteria: basic functionality and security; the ease of accessing, updating and sharing patient information for both patients and providers; and ease with which that information is integrating into the clinical setting.

Kinergy Health was recognized for identifying a highly-effective driver of real-world patient uptake: enabling the physician to convincingly articulate the value of Blue Button to the patient. This resulted in an unexpectedly high percentage of Medicare patients returning home, registering, and sharing their Blue Button data with health care providers. According to Aneesh Chopra, Senior Advisor, The Advisory Board Company, "Kinergy outperformed our other high quality finalists on its ability to engage patients and the medical staff, resulting in a level of trust that led providers to actively encourage patients to enroll."

"We created Kinergy to enable patients, their family members, and all of the providers and care givers involved in their care to communicate and collaborate," said Gail Embt, Kinergy Health CEO and Founder. "By having a single secure place on the web where everyone involved can see and update history, test results, care plans, medication lists, and other information, providers are able to deliver better care more efficiently, and family members gain peace of mind knowing that their loved one is receiving the care they deserve."

"Centra agreed to participate in The Advisory Board Company's Blue Button challenge because we believe that empowering patients through access to their personal health care information increases patient engagement and promotes cross-network care management," said Terri Ripley, Centra's Director of Systems and Programming. "Ultimately our goal is to improve care quality and efficiency." According to Angie Hodge, Centra's Director of Ambulatory Informatics, patients recognized the value of Kinergy: "One particular patient going out of network for treatment was comforted having his Blue Button and Centra data accessible from Kinergy anywhere they travelled and not needing to carry printed copies of his history and records."

Embt commended The Advisory Board Company for its commitment to innovation that helps improve health outcomes and for sponsoring the Patient Engagement Blue Button Challenge. "Software developer competitions like this are becoming increasingly important as drivers of innovation across health care IT," said Embt. "Kinergy Health is honored to have been selected as The Advisory Board Company's Patient Engagement Blue Button Challenge winner."

About Kinergy Health: For elderly and chronically ill individuals Kinergy Health brings their family members, doctors, and professional caregivers together in a private, secure online community where they share and respond to up-to-date information, coordinate plans, and collaborate to assure that the patient is always receiving timely and appropriate care. Today, over 66 million Americans manage the care of someone else. Kinergy Health simplifies the role of family caregiver and improves efficiency and effectiveness for health care providers. MyKinergy is a SaaS-based service allowing health care providers to rapidly deploy patient-centered care models. For more information please visit http://www.kinergyhealth.com.

Media Contacts:

Stuart Itkin Kinergy Health 571.295-8059 Stuart.Itkin@kinergyhealth.com

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Kinergy Health Wins The Advisory Board Company's Blue Button Challenge